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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
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* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
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* *
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* Issue 71 -- November 1998 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
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* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
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Drugs in Early Hollywood
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The Death of Zelda Crosby
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Reporting the Taylor Murder: Day Nine
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What is TAYLOROLOGY?
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TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
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Taylor, a top Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
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death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
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scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
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(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
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murder on Hollywood and the nation; (d) Taylor's associates and the Hollywood
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silent film industry in which Taylor worked. Primary emphasis will be given
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toward reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it
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for accuracy.
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Drugs in Early Hollywood
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In the aftermath of the Arbuckle and Taylor scandals, there were many
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reports and rumors of drug use in Hollywood, which added fuel to the anti-
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Hollywood sentiment sweeping the nation in 1921 and 1922. Many past
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issues of TAYLOROLOGY have carried contemporary reports and rumors of drug
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use at that time, including issues 5, 13, 22, 26, 27, 30, 34, 39, plus
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issues containing dispatches of Wallace Smith.
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Reprinted below is a selection of other early press reports concerning
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drug use in early Hollywood.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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[Mildred Lee Moore got her start in films after winning a "Beauty and Brains"
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contest held by PHOTOPLAY. Her most prominent film role was the leading lady
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in the serial "The Moon Riders." This narcotics arrest finished her film
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career.]
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September 19, 1920
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LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
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It was so soothing--that first whiff--that Mildred Lee Moore, young and
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pretty actress, soon found herself taking deadly dope every day until
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yesterday, when she was arrested and placed in jail for violating the State
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narcotic law. Heroin was found in her possession. With her was arrested
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R. Jay Belasco, an actor in whose apartment at Wilcox and Hollywood Boulevard
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she was found.
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The amazing story told to an Examiner reporter last night by Mildred
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Moore reads more like a sensational novel than that of a girl scarcely out of
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her teens, pretty and well educated. It starts with her desire to be one of
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the merriest in the merry set in which she found herself in New York night
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life. Where it will end she herself confessed no one can tell.
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"I had gone to New York City to make a name for myself in the world,"
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she said. "I obtained a small part in a play on the Amsterdam roof garden.
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For a while I thought I was going ahead, and I was, too, in my work. But off
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the stage I went with a merry crowd of young people. We had wonderful
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parties, but I noticed that I was not as vivacious and confident of myself as
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the rest of the girls and therefore not so popular. Everybody drank or took
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dope. I disliked drinking. The taste was unbearable. I felt that I had to
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do something to make myself other than what I was fast slipping into--a wall
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flower.
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"So, one night when a young man offered me a whiff I took it. I was
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amazed at the result. My nerves relaxed, I became less self-conscious and
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was soon one of the sprightliest in the crowd. It seemed such a simple thing
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to do--place a little powder on your finger and inhale it--that I wondered
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why I hadn't started sooner. The powder gave me wonderful powers. Instead
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of being a wall-flower, I was soon one of the leaders in all our parties.
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I was petted and spoiled until I became intoxicated with the adulations of
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others. I could not resist such a position, although I knew that dope would
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get me some time.
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"I feared dope. I was afraid of it before I took that first whiff and I
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have never lost that fear. I said after I took my first one that I would
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never take another--that if I did it would soon make me look old and sap my
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strength. But the pleasure it gave me and the fun I had at our parties made
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me take it. Do not think that I fell into the habit of taking it every day
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right at the start. One doesn't get the habit that way. I went for several
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days, maybe several weeks, before I took my second powder. I remember well
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why I took it. We were to have a party and I wanted to dazzle the rest with
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my personality--the false personality that dope gives.
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"But it was not long before I got to taking it fairly regularly. Then
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fear gripped me in earnest. I decided that the only way to get away from
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dope was to get away from New York. I came to Los Angeles, where I got a
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position with a film company, last year.
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"I was amazed after I had been here but a day or two when I learned that
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dope users are as common in Los Angeles as in New York. You may be sure that
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with my environment, the same here as it was in New York, that it was not
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long before I was using dope again. It got to be a daily dose, and it was
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not until I began to feel the dreadful reactions that fear again drove me
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into another attempt to stop using dope. I went to the mountains and tried
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to cure myself of the habit. I came back feeling fine and thought I had
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overcome the desire. I was mistaken. Dope came back insidiously and gripped
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me once again. I couldn't help myself. Everybody uses it and I simply had
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to go along.
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"Why, some girls spend as much as $100 a week for dope. I couldn't
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afford that much, but my weekly dope bill has always been around $20.
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"I feel the disgrace of my arrest keenly, but if it results in curing me
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of the use of dope, the price will be cheap. I am only one of hundreds of
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girls who are slaves of dope in Los Angeles. I know many girls with whom I
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associate, who feel that they are little better than slaves of the habit."
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Belasco is also an employee of a film company. Police who arrested them
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said they found a bottle of opium in liquid form in Belasco's possession.
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Fred L. Boden, inspector for the State Board of Pharmacy, who is co-
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operating with Detective Sergeants O'Brien and Yarrow in suppressing the use
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and sale of dope in Los Angeles, said that it is becoming more common daily
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here. He said that scores of young girls are using deadly narcotics.
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Charles McCurtle, who resides at the same address Miss Moore does, 5636
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Delongpre Avenue, was found guilty yesterday of violating the State Narcotic
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Act. He was convicted on two counts by Judge Chambers--one for possessing
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cocaine, and the other for having heroin. He may receive a maximum of six
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months in the city jail for each count, or a total of one year.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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September 16, 1921
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NEW YORK AMERICAN
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Los Angeles, Sept. 15. Nero, whose lurid orgies have been a byword of
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history, would have turned his head in shame at some of the modern-day ribald
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gatherings in which certain members of the Hollywood motion picture colony
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gave their passions and impulses unrestrained play.
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Tearing down the curtain of secrecy that has veiled the spectacular
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conduct of a group known as "The Live Hundred," investigators have begun a
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sensational disclosure of "parties" at which expense was not permitted to
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stand in the way of unmeasured excesses in drinks and drugs.
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These investigators have drawn a colorful picture of the assemblies in
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which the participants surfeited their appetites for drugs and liquors and on
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which the hosts spent vast sums and considerable effort to appease the
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lustful demands of their guests.
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One such event, in which the host spent $20,000 for decorations, is
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described as an affair in which drugs were deliberately served, goldfish
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deluged with gin while their agonized contortions furnished play to the
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guests and movie girl called for "the most beautiful man" as her mate...
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Though the investigations have been going on quietly for some time they
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have been projected into the light by the Arbuckle case. Arbuckle, it is
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said, was a member of "The Live Hundred."
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The disclosures are made by Captain J. H. Pelletier, executive secretary
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of the Los Angeles Morals Efficiency Association, and are confirmed by the
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police. Names have not been made public because indictments have not yet
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been asked. But these names and a full detailing of certain of the lurid
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"parties" will be placed in the record at Arbuckle's trial.
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Perhaps the most sensational of the exposures is that involving a
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festive event staged by a prominent male actor of the screen. Concealed in a
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hedge below the windows of his home, detectives viewed and noted the excesses
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that proved of so extreme a nature as finally to nauseate even some of the
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participants and impel them to leave the party in disgust.
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For several days before the orgy was scheduled the host had supervised a
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group of interior decorators who installed special furniture and settings at
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a cost to him of $20,000.
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For one thing, the entrance to the palatial house was converted so as to
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create the effect of a cavern entrance. The place within was made to live up
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to the name given it of "The Grotto of Good Fellows."
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From without, as the group sat down at the long table in the "grotto,"
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the watchers saw a maid push a wheeled tea tray in after extensive indulgence
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by all in drinks. On the tray was an assortment of needles, opium pipes,
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morphine, cocaine, heroin and opium.
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Each guest hilariously helped himself or herself to liberal doses of
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drugs and selected needles or pipes as the individual desire demanded.
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With drunken caresses they injected morphine into one another or helped
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the next-seat neighbor to "sniff" his or her selection.
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On the stairs, sodden with drink at first, and then all qui viva with
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drugs, sat a couple. Between them was a globe of goldfish. Into this they
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ecstatically poured a quart of gin. In fiendish glee they laughed at the
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antics of the goldfish. They summoned those at the table, and in a moment
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the globe was surrounded with a raucous group that found the antics in the
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globe a happy source of delight.
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But even this diversion quickly lost its "punch." A new one was created
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by a motion picture actress.
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Standing on the stairs she called in high-pitched syllables that were
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interrupted as she turned now and then to the white powder in her palm.
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"I want the most beautiful man here. I am his."
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A dozen men staggered and stumbled and ran, as their physical conditions
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permitted, to gain the prize. She waved them haughtily back and commanded
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that those clamoring for possession of her submit to a vote. Thus was chosen
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"the prettiest man of the bunch."
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What followed proved too much for those at the hedge to endure. They
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pounded at the doors. Lights went out. Excited tones, then a hush. In some
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manner the host got out. The detectives found that drugs and needles and
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pipes had been destroyed or concealed in the brief few minutes once they had
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demanded entrance.
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The host came back, ringing at the front door. He had driven up in an
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automobile. He wore a cap, a motoring ulster and goggles. He had, was his
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explanation, been out driving. The host angrily denounced the invasion. He
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demanded search warrants. He was not arrested, but the guests were. They
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were not prosecuted, however. It was learned that the host had made a
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practice of leaving his automobile a few blocks away during these parties so
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that he might establish just such an alibi as he bluffed successfully on this
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occasion...
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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September 17, 1921
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NEW YORK EVENING WORLD
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Los Angeles.--A beautiful and clever woman, who for many years has
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eluded the police, State and Federal authorities in Los Angeles, has reaped a
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huge fortune from supplying motion picture stars of the Hollywood colony with
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narcotic drugs, it is declared by Capt. J. H. Pelletier, Executive Secretary
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of the Los Angeles Morals Efficiency Commission, who says an early arrest
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probably will be made by State authorities.
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She is the distributing agent, it is declared, for a huge dope ring
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which has catered more particularly to illicit trade with the coterie of film
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stars who have staged numerous parties, the details of which have leaked out
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in several instances and shocked Los Angeles...
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Credence was given to a widespread report in Los Angeles today that
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certain members of the "dope ring" and members of the motion picture
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fraternity are "laying" for Arbuckle should he be liberated from the charge
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in San Francisco. Arbuckle, it was asserted, is blamed for having "kicked
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the pot" by going too far in his San Francisco escapade and thus stirring
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officials into activity which for the time at least will end the activities
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of the narcotic peddlers.
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How high the pitch of this purported feeling has run is indicated in the
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statement credited to a member of the motion picture colony that if Arbuckle
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attempted to return to Los Angeles by automobile a trap would be laid to
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wreck his car and cause his death. This film man stated he had "noticed that
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Arbuckle expects to get out on bail, and that it would be better that he save
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the money to bury himself with." If Arbuckle is released, he said, both the
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coast and inland automobile routes from San Francisco to Los Angeles would be
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watched by the "gang."
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Since the Arbuckle case the Hollywood film colony has "gone to bed" at
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11 o'clock, while formerly this was the time when lights were brightest in
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the homes of many high salaried stars. It has been noticed that during the
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last few days one palatial home set in a secluded location in the hills back
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of Hollywood has been without occupancy, while in times past it has been the
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scene of many gay parties participated in by the fast movie set, who
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frequently went there by aeroplane, as the grounds about the residence had
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been especially arranged to accommodate aviation parties. How far-reaching
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the activities of the drug ring went, particularly in the movie set that has
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been referred to as "Arbuckle's crowd," develops in many tales that are told
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of the parties in which many stars participated and in a dope den in a glen a
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little distance from Hollywood.
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Recently a well known actress failed to make her appearance on the lot
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of the motion picture concern with which she had a contract. At her home it
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was stated she had left for a short walk the evening before, but it had been
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customary for her on similar occasions to spend the evening with friends.
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The picture in which she was making her appearance was in an important stage
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of progress, and her disappearance seriously delayed its taking, but inquiry
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failed to reveal she had gone to the home of any of her friends.
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A search was instituted. For days her disappearance was a mystery,
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while scores of parties searched for her in the hills without success. The
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search was suddenly abandoned and the affair hushed up when it was announced
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she had returned several days before from a nearby resort, where she had gone
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to rest after strenuous work before the camera. She did not, however, resume
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her acting for about ten days, in the interim recovering from the "rest" she
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had enjoyed at the "resort." It later became known that the dope ring had
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established a den in the secluded part of a canyon, catering particularly to
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a clique of stars, and the actress was said to have spent four days at this
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"hangout." Hypodermic injections of heroin and morphine at this den had left
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the marks of scores of punctures in the flesh of her arm, it was stated. So
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serious had her drugged condition become that the members of the dope clan,
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several of whom are said to be film stars, took it upon themselves to remove
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her from their den to her home in the early hours of the morning. Fearing to
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arouse members of her family, they laid her in a hammock on the porch of her
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home, where she was found in a state of deep coma many hours later. Despite
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efforts to hush up the affair, the dope clan was suspicious that officials of
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the State Board of Pharmacy, having charge of investigations of violations of
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the State narcotic act, were on their trail, and the den, which had been in
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operation for only a brief time, was abandoned in haste after its limited but
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lucrative existence...
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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September 23, 1921
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VARIETY
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...the use of narcotics in the [motion picture] profession is the
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subject of an investigation in Los Angeles at present. Almost six months ago
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Variety received from its west coast correspondent a lengthy story based on
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the report of the Los Angeles County Medical Society's special investigation
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into narcotic conditions on the coast. It did not print the story at the
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time because it would have caused an upheaval in the profession and the
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censor fight was on in full force. The report of the committee, however,
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stated that within a year it would be necessary to develop practically an
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entire new force of stars for the screen because of the prevalence of the use
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of drugs among the present stars. The Medical Society has facts and figures
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in proof of its assertions, and names are not the least of their data.
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It is know the wife of one of the most popular of the younger male stars
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has time and again had the peddlers of dope supplying her husband arrested,
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but she has been unable to get her husband to break his habit. Also, one
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young girl star who spent several months in the east returned to the coast
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early last spring, took a cure and signed a contract to star again, only to
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fall back on the use of the "stuff" and slip among the addicts.
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There is a week-end orgy establishment in Beverly Hills, the most
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exclusive residential section of Hollywood. The place is maintained by a
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former well-known member of the Lambs in New York who married on the coast.
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Here the parties last from Friday to Monday with usually all of the guests
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"charged up" during that period.
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Out there they say it's a great life, whether you weaken or not.
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There is a "dope ring" on the coast beyond shadow of a question. The
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medical society had the facts on the tactics employed to gain recruits among
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the addicts of the studios.
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The reports show that those in the acting profession on the coast
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getting the big salaries, far beyond what they were in the habit of receiving
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a short time before, knew of no other way to spend their easily gotten money
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except on "parties." They would walk out of the studio of an afternoon and
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start a party that would last until it was almost time for them to be back at
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the studio again. These parties for the greater part at first were simply
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"hooch" affairs, coupled with physical excesses, then came the inevitable
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morning after droop at the studio and this was the spot where the dope
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recruiter got in his work.
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It was a case of "take a sniff of this," or "let me fix you a shot" and
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the relief afforded made it possible for them to continue with the work. The
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continuance of the round of pleasure and working under a false stimulant soon
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got to the novices and they became confirmed addicts with a habit that would
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lead them to any length to "get the stuff."
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That feature of Los Angeles and Hollywood life is very much in need of
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cleaning, more so than the cleaning of the screen itself...
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 9, 1922
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Clayton Whitehill
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ROCHESTER TIMES-UNION
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Washington, Feb. 9. - ...Meantime government forces through Colonel L. G.
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Nutt, chief of the narcotic division and acting director-general of
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prohibition agents, have taken action to stop the flow of booze and dope in
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California movie colonies...
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"So far, both the prohibition and narcotic forces have been hampered by
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smallness of numbers," he told the United News...
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"Our narcotic squad in California has closed two clinics where movie
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actors and actresses are said to have received daily rations of dope. With
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a mobile force of trained narcotic men numbering 165 working all over the
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country and concentrating just now in the West we expect marked results.
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Besides, the courts are far more sympathetic toward narcotic prohibition and
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regularly mete out stiff sentences.
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"With an augmented force and appropriation, I feel that we can be
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instrumental in eliminating this phase of the movie evil. "
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 9, 1922
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Wallace Smith
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CHICAGO AMERICAN
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The relation of the dope traffic to the mystery [of William Desmond
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Taylor's death], as it stands today, may be summarized as follows:
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1. Stars of the movies, idols of America's millions of fans, beautiful women
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and athletic men, are being destroyed by the use of drugs. Contraband
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liquor, too, is everywhere evident in the Hollywood colony and as a
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consequence vice is rampant.
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2. Knowledge of shameless conduct by victims is in possession of drug
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dealers, who can precipitate a score of domestic battles with a word and who
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can thus keep their "customers" enslaved though they attempt many times to
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break away from the habit by taking the cure.
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3. A noted actress who tried the cure, but who was forced back into
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"slavery" by the dope peddlers, has had a love affair with Taylor. There
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have been quarrels and at least one fight, as a result of which the actress
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went to a hospital.
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4. Evidence of quarrels, so far developed by investigators, has shown that
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the quarrels and love triangles in the colony either took place at "dope
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parties" or following and that the participants were under the influence of
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drugs.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 14, 1922
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CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
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NEW YORK.--That William Desmond Taylor was slain by a member of a drug
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ring whom the motion picture director had attempted to prevent supplying a
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well known film star with narcotics, is the opinion of one of his intimate
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friends.
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This new theory was advanced today by Capt. E. A. Salisbury, lecturer
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and world traveler and intimate friend of Taylor, who recently returned from
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a trip around the world in his yacht, Wisdom II, and who saw Taylor a short
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time before he was shot.
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Capt. Salisbury, whose home is in Hollywood, is now at the Waldorf-
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Astoria.
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Capt. Salisbury said that when he last talked with Taylor he appeared
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upset. He recalled that the director said, "He would make it damn hot for
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these people who are selling drugs." He was deeply concerned, according to
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Salisbury, over the fact that a certain actress, prominent in the film world,
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was being made a prey of the narcotic vendors...
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He was sure Taylor never used dope...
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 16, 1922
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Louis Joseph Vance
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|
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
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|
...One of the best beloved of motion picture stars once told me, in the
|
|
presence of her husband, of a motor tour which she had taken with a party of
|
|
picture people exclusively in two cars, a trip into Mexico lasting over a
|
|
period of several days. She said that on the first night they spent away
|
|
from Hollywood, she discovered that, with the exceptions of the chauffeurs,
|
|
she was the one member of the party who wasn't a drug addict. The others
|
|
made each night's stop the occasion of a drug orgy.
|
|
I don't relate this as an indictment of the entire film colony on a
|
|
charge of drug addiction, but simply for what it may be worth as indicating
|
|
the extent to which people may be driven to seek strange cures for the ennui
|
|
of having more success than nature has equipped them to handle.
|
|
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 15, 1922
|
|
Edward Doherty
|
|
NEW YORK NEWS
|
|
LOS ANGELES.--So there enters upon the stage of this Belshazzar drama
|
|
another figure, as mysterious as all those who have preceded her, yet said to
|
|
be known by name and repute to hundreds of Hollywood "folks."
|
|
Undersheriff Biscailuz and his deputy, Frank Dewar, are searching for
|
|
this woman, of whom they will only say she was known as the "Queen of the
|
|
Dopes" and the head of an all-powerful drug ring operating in Hollywood,
|
|
secretly for strangers, but openly enough for the "extras" and habitues of
|
|
the place, to say nothing of the "aristocracy."
|
|
This woman, Biscailuz says, knows all about how Taylor was killed, but
|
|
he will not reveal what he bases his information upon.
|
|
One of the outstanding facts of the situation, however, is the known
|
|
jealousy, amounting to deadly hatred, and sometimes actual war, between the
|
|
bootleggers and the dope sellers.
|
|
All the dope sellers have gone into hiding now, and Dr. John Roach
|
|
Stratton might visit Hollywood with his vice-magnifying lens and find little
|
|
or nothing on which to wreak his wrath, unless he wants to condemn the home
|
|
life of the cellar owners.
|
|
The colony's "Chinatown" is deserted, and everything tends to the belief
|
|
that for some reason the dope sellers had cause to fear they might be
|
|
involved in the Taylor crime.
|
|
The home of the Queen has been searched and many interesting statistical
|
|
documents found relating to her trade, her customers and her friends.
|
|
She is said to be a beautiful woman, without a trace outwardly of the
|
|
ravages which addicts usually show. She lived near the Taylor home in
|
|
Westlake Court, but that means nothing, as many quite respectable people
|
|
lived there also...
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|
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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|
|
February 22, 1922
|
|
LONG BEACH PRESS
|
|
SACRAMENTO.--The "drug ring" of California killed William Desmond Taylor
|
|
because Taylor had declared war on drug addicts among picture players.
|
|
This is the declaration of James Thomas, recently reformed drug addict,
|
|
who in a series of articles made the following statement to the Sacramento
|
|
Star today:
|
|
"I furnished drugs to other peddlers in Los Angeles, having smuggled the
|
|
drugs into the southern city from Mexico by way of El Paso.
|
|
"Of all my peddlers in Los Angeles, the most prosperous were those who
|
|
sold drugs in Hollywood and around about the motion picture studios.
|
|
I myself have been in the homes of directors of big companies, but I will
|
|
not disclose their names.
|
|
"My peddlers would wear the finest of clothes and mingled with motion
|
|
picture actors and actresses on the 'lot.' They worked quickly and not much
|
|
time was spent in conversation. The peddlers would seem to the casual
|
|
observer to be nothing more than well-to-do visitors.
|
|
"My belief is that the drug ring 'got' Taylor. Whenever anyone stood in
|
|
their way, they always 'got' the person. It was easy enough for them to hire
|
|
some one to kill Taylor--and that is what they did.
|
|
"As I understand it, Taylor had just declared war on drug addicts among
|
|
motion picture players in his company. He was not the villain he is
|
|
pictured. He wanted to clean up the industry and he was starting with drugs.
|
|
"The drug ring learned of it and hired some one to kill him. That's the
|
|
way the drug ring always acts when some one stands in their way."
|
|
Thomas recently renounced the drug habit here after being an addict for
|
|
twenty years.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 24, 1922
|
|
Lee Ettelson
|
|
NEW YORK AMERICAN
|
|
LOS ANGELES.-- ...Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Green, who for
|
|
some years has been in charge of narcotic prosecutions in Federal Court, told
|
|
today how Taylor came to him a year and a half ago with a plea that the
|
|
Government aid him in wiping out a certain drug gang. Mr. Green said:
|
|
"Taylor came to see me one day and told me that a group of peddlers were
|
|
selling narcotic drugs to many persons of his acquaintance, including a
|
|
number of moving picture folk. One woman in particular, a film star of the
|
|
first magnitude, he told me, was a confirmed addict and was being pressed in
|
|
every way to purchase more and more of the deadly drugs.
|
|
"Her bills for drugs, Taylor said, ran as high as $2,000 a month. He
|
|
seemed particularly interested in this woman. I presumed he was in love with
|
|
her and as I read between the lines, I judged that the had come not so much
|
|
to wipe out the ring generally, but to save the actress from the clutches of
|
|
these parasites.
|
|
"I assigned two men to investigate this matter. Taylor said he would
|
|
give them every help--that his only desire was to wipe out the ring entirely.
|
|
"The officers went out and made every effort to get at the men and women
|
|
of the ring. But the addicts were as wary as these peddlers and they used
|
|
every strategy to throw our men off the scent. As the clientele of this
|
|
particular ring was wealthy and powerful, we were thwarted at every step.
|
|
"I did not hear from Taylor again concerning the matter. At our first
|
|
interview he told me that once this actress friend of his had been presumed
|
|
to be cured of the drug habit--I think it was heroin. But later, he told me,
|
|
he found out she had lapsed into the toils of the drug, and nothing could
|
|
stop her, love, influence or money, excepting the elimination of the men who
|
|
sold her the dope.
|
|
"It was not, he explained, that she did not want to be cured. According
|
|
to Taylor's story she did. She had confessed her habit to him shortly after
|
|
meeting him and had asked him to do everything possible to save her."...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
March 20, 1922
|
|
NEW YORK HERALD
|
|
In the arrest yesterday of Anthony Gessel, 39, known to the underworld
|
|
as "Scar Face Tony," the police said they had in custody one of the principle
|
|
agents dispensing narcotics in the country. According to Dr. Carleton Simon,
|
|
chief of the narcotic squad, under whose direction the arrest was made,
|
|
Gessel has supplied more drugs to the addicts of this city than any other
|
|
single known dealer.
|
|
Gessel, who says he has been an addict since he was 15 years old,
|
|
admitted he had been supplying morphine at $150 an ounce to a prominent
|
|
motion picture actress mentioned in the recent Taylor murder case, Dr. Simon
|
|
said. He also asserted that William Desmond Taylor had been slain by one of
|
|
the drug ring in California, whose trade in narcotics had aroused the ire of
|
|
the slain director...
|
|
Gessel spoke of the killing of Taylor, but according to Dr. Simon no
|
|
effort was made to communicate with the California authorities, although
|
|
Gessel admitted knowing a number of members of the drug ring which is known
|
|
to be operating in the vicinity of the movie studios. He told in detail how
|
|
he had supplied the morphine for a certain actress at regular intervals, but
|
|
said that some one had "cut in on his trade" before the date of the killing
|
|
of Taylor.
|
|
Although the name of the actress who has figured prominently in the
|
|
murder of the motion picture director was stated positively to the police by
|
|
Gessel, who said he had both sold the drugs to her personally as well as
|
|
sending them out to the coast, her name was withheld until further
|
|
investigation of the prisoner's story can be made. Gessel will undergo
|
|
thorough questioning soon to find out what he knows of the killing of
|
|
Taylor...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
June 24, 1922
|
|
Truman B. Handy
|
|
MOVIE WEEKLY
|
|
...Many of the serious artists of motion pictures resent the "intrusion"
|
|
of innumerable New York chorus girls who have come to Hollywood to live the
|
|
easy, moneyed life that the position of leading woman in film productions
|
|
offers.
|
|
These women are not in pictures because of their love of Art. They, for
|
|
the most part, belong to the ultra-fast set and can be seen in the various
|
|
cafes dancing hilariously and exploiting their personal charms with utter
|
|
abandon.
|
|
Two, in particular, are notorious drunkards and have hardly ever been
|
|
sober when seen publicly. Another is a drug addict admittedly, but the
|
|
authorities as yet have not been able to "get the goods" directly on her.
|
|
And there is small contingent of the Hollywoodites who are sorely
|
|
addicted to the dangerous dream powders. It is these, in particular, that
|
|
the Hays investigators are investigating.
|
|
A short time ago Federal officers got a "tip" that a very high-salaried,
|
|
very well-known female star who is a drug user, could be caught with
|
|
narcotics in her vanity bag. It was impossible to arrest her merely on
|
|
suspicion, however, and to search her without direct cause.
|
|
However, she was shadowed for several days by narcotic squad agents, and
|
|
finally, under the guise of motorcycle policemen, they managed to catch her
|
|
speeding in her automobile.
|
|
She was arrested and taken to police headquarters. There she was
|
|
searched, and the narcotics, as reported, were found in her handbag.
|
|
No publicity ever resulted, due to the quick work of the young woman's
|
|
attorneys and to the fact that she had unlimited wealth behind her. A heavy
|
|
fine was paid, and she has been put under surveillance.
|
|
If she does not take "the cure" her contract will be broken, she has
|
|
been told, and she has been given a specified length of time in which to
|
|
reform.
|
|
Narcotic purveyors are believed to have figured singularly in the
|
|
William Desmond Taylor murder. Certain friends of his were known users of
|
|
drugs, and it is a police theory that, because he threatened to expose
|
|
members of a drug-selling ring, he was assassinated.
|
|
Until comparatively recently a tall, gaunt Negro who always carried a
|
|
small, black, Boston bag was a frequent visitor to several studio "lots,"
|
|
where admittance is difficult and well-nigh impossible.
|
|
Yet, when he would appear, he would be admitted without question.
|
|
Silently he would meet specified individuals, there would be a hushed
|
|
conference and a cloistered visit, and he would disappear as silently as he
|
|
had come.
|
|
His calls were made at regular intervals. No questions were asked.
|
|
But not long ago he stopped "making his rounds." No one has seen him,
|
|
and his whereabouts are now unknown.
|
|
And, also, reports show that there is a handsomely-appointed residence,
|
|
located in the heart of Hollywood, where the pungent fumes of opium may be
|
|
detected seeping out through crevices in windows and doors that are hung with
|
|
perfume-saturated drapes and curtains.
|
|
Only a small percentage of this establishment's patrons have been film
|
|
people. A prominent actress and a well-known actor, however, have been "on
|
|
the books" as its habitues, going there at scheduled intervals and making
|
|
appointments precisely as if they were seeking consultation with a physician.
|
|
The interior of this place is elaborately-luxuriously furnished. The
|
|
richest of Oriental rugs cover the floor; the most expensive furniture is
|
|
everywhere noticeable. Extremely heavy velvet drapes curtain the windows,
|
|
and from these comes an almost-overpowering odor of heavy perfume, put there
|
|
to drown the deadly, tell-tale fumes of opium.
|
|
You go into a large, semi-dark room, appointed like a parlor.
|
|
Admittance to the establishment is exclusively by card, which a Negro maid
|
|
takes and immediately thereafter disappears.
|
|
In the main room one procures the narcotics by swinging back a picture
|
|
from the wall. Which reveals a small grating, through which the transaction,
|
|
the "promotion," is made.
|
|
And elaborately-furnished upstairs rooms provide the "cots" or "bunks"
|
|
for the smokers to cook and inhale their potion--and sleep for several hours
|
|
the weird, untroubled sleep of the hop eater...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
July 1922
|
|
CAPT. BILLY'S WHIZ BANG
|
|
One of Whiz Bang's investigators just "stumbled" upon an innocent little
|
|
dope party one Sunday afternoon not so long ago. In a modest little bungalow
|
|
on Santa Monica Boulevard, not so far from the big studios, a San Francisco
|
|
man has recently become domiciled. One can go there and take a party of
|
|
friends for afternoon "tea." Several men and women who play in pictures were
|
|
there on the day in question, including Gloria Swanson, who perhaps didn't
|
|
know just what sort of a party she was attending. One young man had
|
|
completely "passed out." The coterie calling at this cottage is not large,
|
|
and you must be very properly introduced to gain admittance. It's there, all
|
|
the same!
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
The Death of Zelda Crosby
|
|
|
|
In David Yallop's book "The Day the Laughter Stopped," it is stated that
|
|
Paramount writer Zelda Crosby was "one of the women linked with Taylor," and
|
|
that she committed suicide in her Hollywood apartment in September 1921.
|
|
There are three errors in that sentence: (1) Aside from the fact that they
|
|
both worked for Paramount, there was no link between William Desmond Taylor
|
|
and Zelda Crosby--Taylor worked in Los Angeles and Crosby worked in New York;
|
|
(2) Zelda Crosby committed suicide in her New York apartment, not in
|
|
Hollywood; (3) She died in June 1921, not September 1921.
|
|
The full story of Zelda Crosby has never been made public. Below are
|
|
some press items published before and after her death, containing some facts
|
|
and rumors. We do not know the identity of the unnamed individuals.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
November 28, 1918
|
|
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
|
|
Zelda Crosby is doing a small part in the latest Elsie Ferguson picture.
|
|
Miss Crosby is not a motion picture actress by profession. She accepted the
|
|
role in "For Sale" because she liked working with Miss Ferguson in "A Doll's
|
|
House."
|
|
Miss Crosby has been helping the continuity writers at the Famous
|
|
Players-Lasky Company solve many problems and straighten out broken down and
|
|
ill scenarios. Although she is only 21 years old she has written several
|
|
scenarios and hopes to write many more.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
July 8, 1921
|
|
VARIETY
|
|
Inside Stuff on Pictures
|
|
|
|
The item in this department mentioning the efforts being made to withhold
|
|
the details of a film scandal, in which a young film actress attempted suicide
|
|
through the shift of affections from her to another picture girl by a
|
|
prominent personage in a large film concern, carries even more with it than
|
|
the story last week hinted at.
|
|
The efforts to suppress the matter went too far, according to the story,
|
|
that a publication (which intended to print the facts of the matter upon the
|
|
supporting affidavit of another girl who knew them) was purchased by the
|
|
people of the concern who feared the possible ensuing publicity. The
|
|
purchase price is reported at around $25,000.
|
|
The girl making the affidavit and her name is quite familiar in the
|
|
picture world, is related to have said she spent the money received for the
|
|
affidavit upon the welfare of the jilted young woman, but this has not been
|
|
verified, since the moneys she is said to have expended for certain purposes
|
|
are also reported to have been paid by the film concern.
|
|
Neither is the statement that a film actress attempted suicide strictly
|
|
in accordance with the facts. But there is no question the man in the case
|
|
did shift his attentions to a film actress, causing the other young woman
|
|
much mental anguish and a sad ending.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
September 21, 1921
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
New York, Sept. 20.--Reopening of the investigation into the death last
|
|
June of Zelda Crosby, beautiful film writer for the Famous Players-Lasky
|
|
Company, has created a new sensation on Broadway, where for the last week
|
|
only the Arbuckle case has been talked. Three witnesses have been subpoenaed
|
|
by County Medical Examiner Charles H. Norris.
|
|
Two letters, reported to have been suppressed in the interests of "a man
|
|
high in the motion picture business," contain, it is said, revelations that
|
|
place a new aspect on the death of the youthful writer, possessor of a face
|
|
"too beautiful to be filmed."
|
|
Miss Crosby died in Bellevue Hospital on June 19 after being removed
|
|
from her studio apartment at No. 28 East Fifty-Fifth Street in an unconscious
|
|
condition two days previous.
|
|
The impression was given out when Miss Crosby was found dying that she
|
|
was in the habit of using veronal, and the medical examiner reached the
|
|
conclusion that death was due to an accidental overdose of the drug.
|
|
Then came persistent reports that the case was one of suicide and that
|
|
all-important evidence had been suppressed. This evidence, it is said,
|
|
consisted mainly of tell-tale letters and the condition of the apartment in
|
|
which Miss Crosby was found unconscious. It was reported that the letters
|
|
had been stolen from the room and that her acquaintances from the moving
|
|
picture colony had hastily rearranged the room after Miss Crosby had been
|
|
removed to Bellevue hospital, where she died three days later.
|
|
Miss Crosby's friends, who had supposed that she had more than enough
|
|
money to supply her needs, were surprised to find that the Welfare
|
|
Association of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation had paid part of the
|
|
funeral expenses. It was this fact that started the gossip along Broadway.
|
|
Evidence that somebody was vitally interested in getting the facts
|
|
concerning Miss Crosby's death was augmented by the statement of Mrs. Gross,
|
|
housekeeper of the apartment, that private detectives had visited her several
|
|
times and had questioned her closely.
|
|
"The first thing I wanted to know from these men," she said, "was in
|
|
whose interest they were questioning me. They seemed to be in as much doubt
|
|
as I was. Nobody ever questioned me so closely in all my life. They got me
|
|
to take them to the apartment where Miss Crosby had lived and asked me all
|
|
about it.
|
|
"These detectives wanted to know about the parties that had been held in
|
|
the studio, who had attended them and what was done. I told them that the
|
|
parties were usually quiet affairs, but that it was necessary once to call a
|
|
policeman.
|
|
"From time to time Miss Crosby had different studio mates--young women
|
|
of her own age. She was 23. They were always young women who were in the
|
|
motion picture business. She was here about eleven months. Before I came
|
|
here she had the apartment under the name of Miss Schuster, and another young
|
|
woman lived with her."
|
|
Miss Crosby's parents, Philip and Anna Schuster, live in the Bronx.
|
|
both were American born. The girl herself was born in New York City. During
|
|
the war, when the reaction against things German was at its height the
|
|
daughter, then famous as a continuity writer, dropped the family name of
|
|
Schuster for the penname she had used for some time.
|
|
When Miss Crosby reached the age of 16 she asserted the right to make a
|
|
career for herself. She turned to the newly developed motion picture field
|
|
and hoped to enter there with her beauty as her passport.
|
|
But she was "too pretty" for the directors. The softness of her face
|
|
was too marked for proper delineation in pictures. She took up stenography.
|
|
As an expert stenographer she attracted the attention of leading men in the
|
|
moving picture world, and learned to write continuity.
|
|
When Miss Crosby made good as a continuity writer she left the home of
|
|
her parents and established a studio on 55th Street, a dozen blocks above the
|
|
theater district. Here the general surroundings indicated prosperity.
|
|
It was asserted tonight that neither the police nor Dr. Norris knew
|
|
anything of the two letters reported to have been removed from the studio
|
|
after Miss Crosby's death. According to those who know, they should have
|
|
been turned over to the authorities and kept on file in the office of the
|
|
medical examiner. The subpoenas issued by Dr. Norris this afternoon call for
|
|
the appearance of the witnesses before him tomorrow.
|
|
Miss Crosby numbered among her friends in the motion picture field some
|
|
of the most famous producers, directors, continuity writers and actresses.
|
|
Only a few weeks before her death she returned from a visit to California,
|
|
where she was introduced to some of the best known men and women in the
|
|
motion picture world. She returned to her work with the Famous Players-Lasky
|
|
Corporation, but she was apparently not in gay spirits, a friend said today.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
September 21, 1921
|
|
NEW YORK AMERICAN
|
|
...Dr. Schwartz said yesterday:
|
|
"My examination disclosed that Miss Crosby died of veronal poisoning and
|
|
of bronchial pneumonia. I was not called into the case until after her
|
|
death, and at that time heard nothing of the existence of supposed letters
|
|
indicating that Miss Crosby contemplated suicide.
|
|
"A private physician gave me information that he had treated the young
|
|
woman a number of times for veronal poisoning and that she was a habitual
|
|
user of the drug. I, therefore, saw no need for an autopsy.
|
|
"It is the purpose of this office to keep the records straight and if
|
|
letters exist or did exist showing that Miss Crosby deliberately drank the
|
|
poison to end her life we should have them on our records and will get them
|
|
if possible."...
|
|
Miss Crosby's rise from typist to continuity writer in the moving
|
|
picture field was rapid. She was well known in the movie field and numbered
|
|
among her friends some of the leading producers, directors, writers and
|
|
actresses.
|
|
Exactly what happened the evening of June 16, the day before the
|
|
unconscious form of Miss Crosby was found, is another of the mysteries
|
|
surrounding the case.
|
|
Mrs. Gross, housekeeper of the apartment, said yesterday that when she
|
|
was informed by a maid of Miss Crosby's condition on the morning of June 17,
|
|
she at once notified the Famous Players studio, and movie picture people
|
|
hurried to the apartment and cleaned it up. She said she understood several
|
|
letters were found and that "Miss Crosby had had a love affair."
|
|
Mrs. Gross said Miss Crosby frequently entertained little parties, but
|
|
they were always very quiet affairs.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
September 21, 1921
|
|
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
|
|
...A maid had found Miss Crosby unconscious in the apartment in which
|
|
the scenario writer lived a bachelor girl existence alone. A strong odor of
|
|
a drug permeated the apartment. Near Miss Crosby was a cloth saturated with
|
|
the drug, since then said to have been veronal. However, search of the rooms
|
|
revealed no bottle that might have held the poison.
|
|
Policeman Kenny was called in by the maid. Proficient in first aid
|
|
methods, Kenny administered whites of eggs and milk as an antidote. When an
|
|
ambulance surgeon arrived from Flower Hospital the policeman assisted him in
|
|
using stomach pump and lung-meter.
|
|
Miss Crosby was taken to Bellevue a prisoner as well as a patient.
|
|
Satisfied there had been no one else in the apartment when she took the
|
|
poison, the police entered a charge of attempted suicide against her...
|
|
Friends said Miss Crosby had been in ill health since her return
|
|
recently from a two-months' visit in California...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
September 21, 1921
|
|
NEW YORK HERALD
|
|
...Rumors flitting up and down Broadway about the manner of the girl's
|
|
death have resulted in the resurrection of the case. It is rare that
|
|
Broadway remembers anything longer than nine days, but for three months among
|
|
the screen and stage folk the death of Zelda Crosby has been a topic of
|
|
conversation...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
September 22, 1921
|
|
NEW YORK AMERICAN
|
|
The reason why Zelda Crosby, gifted and beautiful movie scenario writer,
|
|
took her life last June still remains a mystery.
|
|
Secret hearings were held yesterday at noon and in the afternoon by
|
|
Chief Medical Examiner Charles Norris.
|
|
At the end of the hearings, Dr. Norris issued this brief statement:
|
|
"Mrs. Schuster, the mother of Zelda Crosby, was here and examined. She
|
|
produced for me a letter from her daughter. The letter clearly indicated
|
|
that the daughter was despondent and in ill health, and was about to take her
|
|
life. I am satisfied that she committed suicide."...
|
|
Mrs. Gross, janitress of the house where Miss Crosby lived, and Steven
|
|
Clow, editor of Broadway Brevities, were also examined.
|
|
Dr. Norris said Miss Crosby had left two letters, one an open letter,
|
|
disposing of her personal effects, and the other sealed, addressed to her
|
|
mother. He refused to make public the text of either letter, or to give a
|
|
resume of the testimony of the witnesses. He said:
|
|
"I am not interested whether there was a man or a dozen men in Miss
|
|
Crosby's life. It is not my business to establish a motive for her suicide."
|
|
He admitted he had interrogated Mrs. Gross concerning stories about gay
|
|
parties in Miss Crosby's rooms. He said she had replied that she knew of no
|
|
such parties, since she was on duty only in the day-time. She said the night
|
|
janitress had not told her of any parties. Dr. Norris did not subpoena the
|
|
night janitress.
|
|
Clow was asked concerning a visit he had paid to Miss Crosby's apartment
|
|
after her death. He said he had seen no letters left by the dead writer.
|
|
Dr. Norris explained that he had instituted his inquiry for the sole
|
|
purpose of correcting his record. He declared the police report that Miss
|
|
Crosby had left suicide letters had not been received by his office until
|
|
three days after it had disposed of the case as an accidental case of veronal
|
|
poisoning. As the result of yesterday's hearings, he said, he will make two
|
|
corrections in the record. He will describe it as a suicide and he will
|
|
amend her name to Zelda Schuster.
|
|
It was pointed out that persistent rumors that Miss Crosby had killed
|
|
herself because she had lost the affections of a motion picture magnate
|
|
afford no basis for any official action.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
VARIETY
|
|
...The first of the scandals rose to the breeze last spring when a young
|
|
woman scenario writer committed suicide. The underground reports were to the
|
|
effect one of the principal executives of the Famous Players organization was
|
|
involved with her. At the time several of the publications building up
|
|
circulation by promulgating the scandals of the industry were reported as
|
|
having been bought up to prevent the publication of the facts...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
November 1921
|
|
CAPT. BILLY'S WHIZ BANG
|
|
...It was Fatty's misfortune that he was not able to hush up his scandal
|
|
as the scandal of Zelda Crosby was hushed up recently in New York.
|
|
Zelda Crosby was a young scenario writer. When she was about fifteen
|
|
years old she happened to be invited to a jazz party given by a well known
|
|
movie star in New York. One of the guests at the party was a "fillum"
|
|
magnate known over the world for his campaign for purity, etc., in films.
|
|
He took the little girl under the protection of his influence. She
|
|
developed a flare for writing and he gave her an important job as a scenario
|
|
writer.
|
|
* * * * *
|
|
This row of stars means the usual thing that they mean in romances.
|
|
Well, after a while, the girl, who was now in her twenties, realized
|
|
that he was slipping away from her. She accused him of having met another
|
|
girl for whom he cared more than for her. Incidentally, he was a married man,
|
|
but that didn't count.
|
|
The film magnate renewed his protestations to her; but began to find
|
|
fault with the quality of her scenario work. Then one day the little girl
|
|
went into the bathroom and tipped up a bottle of poison and that was the end.
|
|
Well, not quite the end. A girl friend of hers began to talk at a party.
|
|
She began to tell some very dangerous things she knew of. It happened that
|
|
this girl's name is the same as that of a great screen star.
|
|
In a panic the film magnate heard what was said at the party. He
|
|
hurried off to the astonished star a telegram threatening openly to ruin her
|
|
entire screen career if she ever opened her mouth again about this scandal.
|
|
Her indignant reply disclosed to the magnate that he had sent a telegram to
|
|
the wrong girl by mistake.
|
|
Then, brethren, there was truly a fine howdydo, and it all came out in
|
|
the papers--at least some of it did.
|
|
One young man--a journalist hanging on the ragged edge of decency,
|
|
stated that he had some inside facts and intended to bring the whole thing
|
|
out in a grand jury investigation. But he never got to the grand jury and
|
|
the whole thing was suddenly hushed up. I leave it to you to imagine what
|
|
happened.
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
Reporting the Taylor Murder: Day Nine
|
|
|
|
Below are some highlights of the press reports published in the ninth day
|
|
after Taylor's body was discovered.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
Walter Anthony
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN
|
|
Los Angeles--...Woolwine, the district attorney, isn't the only one that
|
|
is persuaded that the efforts of the sleuths to track the assassin are being
|
|
blocked and their investigations hampered by a sinister determination in some
|
|
quarters to hush the whole scandal and to hide the mess. "Ted" Taylor,
|
|
publicity director for the dead producer, is firmly convinced that if the
|
|
truth is laid bare it will be over the handicaps erected by powerful motion
|
|
picture folk.
|
|
The Arbuckle case did incalculable harm to the industry and has only
|
|
ceased to exercise a baneful influence at box offices because of the later
|
|
and greater menace--like a sick man suffering with an acute cold who forgets
|
|
his ailment because he is stricken with blood poisoning.
|
|
If it be true that powerful picture interests are really hampering the
|
|
efforts of the police through fear--not of personal safety or arrest, but of
|
|
the damage an expose would inflict on the business--they are badly advised,
|
|
for the cat is far enough out of the bag and the whole world knows it's
|
|
black. No truth could be worse than the surmises, intimations, half facts
|
|
and suggestions that already are current throughout the picture-patronizing
|
|
world. The smell is in the nostrils--nothing but the fresh air of a complete
|
|
uncovering will save the situation.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
|
|
Tracing the course of the $2500 check, said to have been drawn by
|
|
William D. Taylor, slain motion picture director, on January 31, and
|
|
redeposited on the day of his death, investigators today discovered that the
|
|
film official had placed an order with a local concern for upwards of $3000
|
|
worth of diamonds.
|
|
The diamonds were never delivered, it is said, and this may account for
|
|
the fact that the money was replaced in the bank. Taylor, the police say,
|
|
may have considered using the diamonds as a gift and later to have withdrawn
|
|
this decision.
|
|
While no details of the new angle to the case were made known, it is
|
|
said a prominent motion picture actress, mentioned in connection with the
|
|
case, also visited the jewelry shop in question on the same day...
|
|
The district attorney said that nowhere in his investigation had he met
|
|
with any reticence of movie stars or others to furnish information...
|
|
...The selection of David Hartford as successor to Taylor, a former
|
|
director in the Motion Picture Directors' Association, was announced today by
|
|
that organization...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
DETROIT NEWS
|
|
A clue that may mean much in the mystery of the slaying of William
|
|
Desmond Taylor was uncovered in Detroit today when it was discovered that
|
|
several well known motion picture people, including one named in the
|
|
investigation, had secured copies of The Equinox, the official organ of the
|
|
O. T. O. from the Universal Book Stores in this city.
|
|
The O. T. O. is said to be a "love cult" believed similar to the one
|
|
mentioned in dispatches from Los Angeles, whose weird faiths and rituals are
|
|
set forth in the book, all known copies of which have been seized by the
|
|
prosecutor following the opening of an investigation into its activities.
|
|
Frank Murphy, assistant U. S. district attorney, today admitted that
|
|
orders for the book were among the effects seized in the Federal
|
|
investigation, and that among these orders was one from a famous motion
|
|
picture actress, whose name has been mentioned in the Taylor investigation.
|
|
Murphy said he would forward this information to Los Angeles immediately.
|
|
Descriptions of the meetings of the love cult in Los Angeles fit in so
|
|
closely with instructions given in the Equinox for the O. T. O. gatherings
|
|
that there is reason to believe the Los Angeles crowd is a branch of the
|
|
organization.
|
|
That members of the O. T. O. would not hesitate at anything is indicated
|
|
both by the governing rule of the order, "Do whatsoever thou wilt," and by a
|
|
page in which the cult sent greetings and praise to Arthur Waite, the Grand
|
|
Rapids dentist, executed for murder in New York, following his conviction in
|
|
connection with the deaths of his father-in-law and mother-in-law by poison,
|
|
and his attempts to work a similar death on his wife.
|
|
This page is in the back of the book and is so worded as to indicate the
|
|
authors of the book not only held the slayer in high esteem, but were in
|
|
sympathy with his acts.
|
|
Photographs of cult members show men in kimonos such as described in the
|
|
Los Angeles investigation of the California cult, and paragraphs in the book
|
|
declare it is the duty of members to go to any length to guard the secrets of
|
|
the organization.
|
|
The O. T. O. came into public notice when the Universal Book Stores went
|
|
into the hands of a receiver and, at the bankruptcy trial, it was shown
|
|
thousands of dollars had gone into the publication of The Equinox.
|
|
|
|
[The "O. T. O." was Aleister Crowley's "Ordo Templi Orientis."]
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
DETROIT TIMES
|
|
The possibility of the sinister influence of the O. T. O. underlying the
|
|
mystery of the murder of William Desmond Taylor, developed today, when it was
|
|
discovered that many copies of the "Equinox" had circulated among the movie
|
|
folk of Hollywood.
|
|
Grover L. Morden, counsel for the complainant in the bankruptcy
|
|
proceedings of the Universal Book Stores Inc., in which the O. T. O. is the
|
|
principal factor, said that a copy of the "Equinox" had been mailed to the
|
|
wife of a prominent moving picture director in Hollywood some time ago, and
|
|
it was known many other copies had been shipped to the movie country.
|
|
It is possible that the order has obtained a foothold in the picture
|
|
colony and color is lent this theory by the frequent occurrence of alleged
|
|
drug orgies among the movie stars...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
Frances Wayne
|
|
DENVER POST
|
|
A brother's hand raised in revenge against a brother whom he charged
|
|
with betraying the girl he loved and intended to marry, thus sending her to a
|
|
suicide's grave, and turning his life into a wilderness, is a picture thrown
|
|
by a Denver man upon the screen in the mystery enshrouding the life and
|
|
murder of William Desmond Taylor and his relations with Edward F. Sands, one-
|
|
time secretary-valet of the screen director.
|
|
"Sands is Taylor's brother," declared this Denver man, who, for business
|
|
reasons, asked that his name be withheld.
|
|
Saying this, he told a tale he said Sands had told him of grief, of
|
|
sorrow, of embitterment through, what Sands characterized as a shameful wrong
|
|
to one he loved, as the causes which sent the so-called Sands from his home
|
|
in Ireland, searching the world for his elder brother and to finally
|
|
collecting the toll of hatred with an assassin's bullet.
|
|
"I knew the Taylor brothers in Dublin, years ago," the man explained.
|
|
"At that time the younger, the one we call Sands, was engaged to a beautiful
|
|
girl who was a visitor at his mother's home near Dublin. William, we'll use
|
|
this name, was evidently as attractive to women then as in the last hour of
|
|
his life, for, somehow, he won the trust of his brother's fiancee. Later
|
|
this girl committed suicide.
|
|
"It was eighteen years after this tragedy that Sands entered my office
|
|
in Portland, Ore., to find if I had heard anything, or knew anything, of the
|
|
whereabouts of his brother. He told me in a brief way that he was hunting
|
|
for his brother and had to get him. I suggested that he go into northwest
|
|
Canada and make a search. He did so, but returned later to report failure.
|
|
He then went to Alaska, where the two men, one hiding, the other a revenger,
|
|
met. Taylor returned to the United States and in Seattle joined a company of
|
|
players. There he was joined by Sands.
|
|
"Knowing, as I do, of the double blood bond between Sands and Taylor,
|
|
the stories of Taylor's leniency toward Sands, who was charged with forging
|
|
his name and stealing his goods, was not surprising to me.
|
|
"Taylor was in the absolute power of Sands, and while Sands was out to
|
|
revenge what he called the defilement of the woman he loved, and had taken
|
|
more than eighteen years to turn thumbs down, he was having a living off of
|
|
Taylor and knew himself to be safe from legal action.
|
|
"The two brothers were very superstitious. Sands was especially
|
|
interested in the occult and was always consulting mediums and fortune
|
|
tellers. The old Irish Faey held them in bond. Taylor was the more
|
|
sensitive of the two and if he was addicted to morbidity he had cause to be
|
|
morbid, because, always before him or in the shadow, lurked the ghost of
|
|
other days.
|
|
"I'll stake my life that when Sands is caught the mystery of Taylor's
|
|
murder will be cleared up and a number of events and elements in the man's
|
|
life which now seem obscure will be made plain.
|
|
"Revenge of a dead love, not because of any living screen star, is the
|
|
motive behind the murder of William Desmond Taylor," the man concluded.
|
|
|
|
[The above tale was a total fabrication. Sands was not Taylor's brother.]
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
NEW ORLEANS ITEM
|
|
Los Angeles--...Miss Normand, in a statement to the United Press, flatly
|
|
denied a published report crediting her with saying that her visit to Taylor
|
|
on the night he met his death, was to demand that he return to her the
|
|
"blessed baby" letters she had written to him.
|
|
This report quoted Miss Normand to the effect that Taylor had refused to
|
|
return the packet of letters and telegrams, saying he had turned them over,
|
|
for an unexplained reason, to two officials of the Famous Players-Lasky
|
|
corporation.
|
|
"I made no such statement," the comedienne said today. "The report is
|
|
totally false."...
|
|
...Reports here declare that the revelations of the next 24 hours will
|
|
outstrip the sensations the case has already produced. The district
|
|
attorney's office is said to be centering on two men as being the possible
|
|
cause of Taylor's death.
|
|
They are checking up his friendships among the women of the screen world
|
|
and in doing so they have found, according to reports, that, by his
|
|
dominating personality, he broke up one alliance of long standing in the film
|
|
colony. He was the lucky contender in another Hollywood affair, arousing the
|
|
enmity of a man of considerable note in the profession...
|
|
...New and direct evidence singling out the son of a rich New York
|
|
manufacturer from the four unnamed suspects under investigation in the Taylor
|
|
case was obtained today.
|
|
The lead was furnished by Deputy Sheriff Nolan, who declared "the angle
|
|
I am working on may result in an arrest within the next few hours, if the man
|
|
we're after fails to clear up the question of his whereabouts on the night of
|
|
the murder."
|
|
The young man about whom the quest now centers was grilled early in the
|
|
murder investigation. He offered an alibi which cleared him at the time, but
|
|
which officials claim rapidly crumbled as one witness after another named in
|
|
the alibi was cross-examined by District Attorney Woolwine.
|
|
The sheriff's office entertained from the first the theory that the man
|
|
under suspicion, reputed to be jealous and hot tempered, was in love with an
|
|
actress prominently mentioned in the Taylor case and might have had a hand in
|
|
the shooting.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES RECORD
|
|
Two pairs of shoes, one formerly the property of Taylor, and the other
|
|
of Edward F. Sands, were locked in a cabinet in Taylor's apartment, 404-B
|
|
South Alvarado street, Friday.
|
|
Sands' shoes were found by E. C. Jessurun, Taylor's landlord, in a back
|
|
closet on the second floor of the Taylor bungalow.
|
|
They are a light tan in color, short and broad in shape and are so
|
|
stretched to accommodate Sands' particularly shaped feet to afford a good
|
|
means of identification in Jessurun's opinion.
|
|
Jessurun said he had informed the police about the shoes, but they had
|
|
not expressed any interest in them.
|
|
A detailed search made by Jessurun in the Taylor garage late Friday
|
|
disclosed a pair of women's rubber bathing slippers, small in size.
|
|
Also an empty leather small arms holster was found in the garage.
|
|
In an old torn pair of trousers was found a white handkerchief with the
|
|
initial R in one corner.
|
|
Efforts were made by investigators Friday to find Ed Fowler, chauffeur
|
|
for Taylor, following the discharge of Sands. Fowler is said to have known
|
|
Sands and it is believed that he may have information to his whereabouts
|
|
within the past few months.
|
|
Fowler, who was discharged by Taylor, is not under suspicion himself.
|
|
More than a score of automobile supply slips, receipted by Fowler, were
|
|
found on the wall of the Taylor garage.
|
|
...In an effort to locate William Desmond Taylor's lost will Public
|
|
Administrator Frank Bryson Friday began a search of safety deposit boxes in
|
|
Los Angeles' 100 banks and bank branches.
|
|
"I have some of Taylor's keys," Bryson said, "but I don't know what they
|
|
fit."
|
|
The keys were tried out on several safe deposit boxes in downtown banks
|
|
Thursday but found not to fit...
|
|
The Dope Dragon again reared its sinister crest in the Taylor murder
|
|
mystery Friday.
|
|
A peddler of narcotics, well known to the police, has disappeared from
|
|
his Hollywood home, missing since about the day of the murder.
|
|
None of his studio acquaintances are able to give a clue to his
|
|
whereabouts.
|
|
The man knew William Desmond Taylor well, although the picture director
|
|
is not suspected of having been a drug addict. Taylor, like every other
|
|
motion picture director, was thrown in contact with "hop heads."
|
|
Among his acquaintances were women of the studios who were known to be
|
|
addicted to dope.
|
|
The mystery of the dope peddler's disappearance is believed of
|
|
sufficient importance to warrant a rigid investigation. Among those slated
|
|
for quizzing at the district attorney's office today are several
|
|
acquaintances of the doper, who, it is hoped, may give some clue to his
|
|
whereabouts.
|
|
If he is found he will be asked to account for his whereabouts the night
|
|
of Wednesday, February 1. If he can do this satisfactorily it will eliminate
|
|
him from direct connection with the murder.
|
|
Then he will be closely questioned about any women patrons who were
|
|
friends of Taylor.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
Frank Bartholomew
|
|
LOS ANGELES RECORD
|
|
Four Theories in Taylor Case
|
|
|
|
The field of suspects in the Taylor murder mystery is narrowed down to
|
|
four men and Miss X--mysterious and unknown woman, in an analysis of experts,
|
|
made Friday.
|
|
Random clues, reports of William Desmond Taylor's past life and love
|
|
affairs, letters disappearing and reappearing, handkerchiefs and the "pink
|
|
silk nightie"--all were consolidated today into a single mass of evidence.
|
|
District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine is in command of the various
|
|
agencies searching for Taylor's slayer. All new evidence unearthed will be
|
|
placed at his disposal.
|
|
Suspect Number One
|
|
The first of the men suspects is Edward F. Sands, who according to one
|
|
theory might have both planned and executed the crime. He is being sought by
|
|
one branch of investigators as the possible murderer because Taylor had
|
|
threatened him with prosecution on grand larceny charges. The blackmail
|
|
theory involves this former servant. Taylor, bank records show, drew out
|
|
$2500 a day or so before the murder and then returned it to the bank the day
|
|
of the shooting.
|
|
This, according to the police, might indicate that Taylor had decided to
|
|
play blackmail, then changed his mind and refused the demands at the last
|
|
minute and met his death refusing them.
|
|
Suspect Number Two
|
|
The second man upon which the attention of the combined investigators
|
|
centered is the idle son of a multi-millionaire eastern manufacturer who is
|
|
said to have been desperately in love with the actress whose dainty nightgown
|
|
was found among Taylor's possessions following the tragedy.
|
|
This young man is said to have come from the east a few months ago and
|
|
to have been loitering about the fringe of the California movie colony,
|
|
attracted by the actress. He is reported to have been secretly betrothed to
|
|
the owner of the "pink silk nightie."
|
|
Suspect Number Three
|
|
The third man who was included in the list of possible suspects was
|
|
today described as an "independent motion picture figure" whose phenomenal
|
|
rise within the last five years has been one of the most remarkable
|
|
accomplishments of the motion picture industry. He was said to have been
|
|
under investigation from the first.
|
|
It is said he was in love with the same actress mentioned in connection
|
|
with the "young man from the east" and to have been divorced by his wife
|
|
because of infidelity.
|
|
The Woman Angle
|
|
Another motion picture executive is referred to as "Suspect No. 4."
|
|
The mysterious Miss X is not a pointed reference to any one actress
|
|
among those of Taylor's acquaintances. She is merely the police theory that
|
|
a jealous woman instigated the slaying of the director.
|
|
|
|
[In the above list, Suspect Number Two is Tommy Dixon, Suspect Number Three
|
|
is Marshall Neilan, Suspect Number Four is Mack Sennett.]
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
|
|
Chicago, Feb. 10--...another Chicagoan, Mrs. John H. Borden, close
|
|
friend of Mabel Normand, was rising to the latter's defense. She returned
|
|
here a month ago after a five months' visit with Mabel Normand.
|
|
"Mabel is not in love and never was in love with Taylor," she said.
|
|
"Bill Taylor was in love with her, very much so, but it was unrequited. She
|
|
had been engaged to Mack Sennett, but that was an old affair and now they are
|
|
merely good friends. Mabel did not know anything about the first Mrs. Taylor
|
|
or the daughter.
|
|
"Mabel never mentioned Mary Miles Minter's name to me. If there had
|
|
been an affair between Taylor and Miss Minter I believe Mabel would have told
|
|
me.
|
|
"And as to those 'baby' letters, I read them to Mabel over the telephone
|
|
when she was away. If she had been in love she would never have allowed me
|
|
to do that. As far as Mabel Normand is concerned, I can say and know that
|
|
she is not 'wild,' and that her work and her screen ambitions are too big in
|
|
her life to let anything in the world interfere."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
A man believed by the police to be a material witness in the Taylor
|
|
murder case was arrested here last night. He was charged with a felony
|
|
pending further investigation into his story. Armed with a search warrant,
|
|
two detectives made a hurried trip early this morning, following an absence
|
|
for more than two hours from the conference in the District Attorney's
|
|
office. Their mission followed the arrest and no indication of their plans
|
|
was given.
|
|
Mabel Normand, film-star friend of William Desmond Taylor, the slain
|
|
motion-picture director whose murder more than a week ago continues to baffle
|
|
the police, last night was questioned for hours in the District Attorney's
|
|
office. She was the second woman star of considerable magnitude in filmdom
|
|
to be questioned, the first being Mary Miles Minter.
|
|
Miss Normand, the last friend, it is believed, who saw Mr. Taylor alive,
|
|
was closeted with Dist.-Atty. Woolwine, Chief Deputy Doran and police
|
|
detectives from 8:15 p.m. until midnight.
|
|
She was driven to the office by her chauffeur, William Davis, an
|
|
important witness in the case whose statements thus far have corroborated
|
|
Miss Normand' story that Mr. Taylor accompanied her to her automobile when
|
|
she left him a few minutes before he was shot through the back in his
|
|
bachelor apartments. Mr. Davis was questioned after Miss Normand.
|
|
"I have seldom seen a case so devoid of workable or substantial clews as
|
|
is this one," Mr. Woolwine stated at the close of the four-hour session.
|
|
Little additional information that had not previously been told to
|
|
officers and also in the columns of The Times was gleaned from the statement
|
|
last night of Miss Normand. Her story has been told and retold by her and in
|
|
all essential points there was no variation during the long questioning.
|
|
She said she went to Mr. Taylor's apartments to get a book at his
|
|
request. She retold the substance of their conversation. Then she left
|
|
about 7:45 p.m. He took her to her automobile, talked for a few minutes,
|
|
waved good-by and turned toward his home as she left in her automobile. It
|
|
was a very few moments after this he was shot.
|
|
After her long statement she left Mr. Woolwine's office, apparently well
|
|
at ease, her lips a deep crimson, giving more than a mere suspicion of a
|
|
camera-proof make-up.
|
|
She obligingly permitted cameramen to "flash" the scene as she walked
|
|
down the corridor with Messers. Woolwine and Doran at her side. She laughed
|
|
frequently--all the party seemed in good spirits.
|
|
During the long conference with Miss Normand, the much-discussed letters
|
|
written to Mr. Taylor by her and not found in the house until a few days
|
|
after the murder, were taken into the room where she was making a statement.
|
|
Mr. Doran took them from his office at another end of the hall. He
|
|
remained in the room where Miss Normand was about thirty minutes and then Mr.
|
|
Doran, with the packet of letters in his pocket, walked again to his office.
|
|
On the return trip his pocket was empty.
|
|
Despite this definite indication that Mr. Woolwine will retain
|
|
possession of the letters for the time being at least, there is nothing in
|
|
them, he stated, that seems to throw light on the crime or motive behind the
|
|
slaying.
|
|
Just before Miss Normand's questioning was concluded, Mr. Woolwine came
|
|
out of the room and said that in his opinion Miss Normand was very anxious to
|
|
assist in every way to find the slayer.
|
|
"I may be mistaken," he said, "but I now have the opinion she is anxious
|
|
to assist us in every way."
|
|
Flanked on both sides and with a rear and front guard of police
|
|
detectives, Miss Normand displayed a remarkable shyness for cameramen when
|
|
she entered the Hall of Records at 7:55 o'clock last night. She was also
|
|
accompanied by A. MacArthur, her personal representative, and a friend, who
|
|
gave her name as Miss Burns.
|
|
When the members of the party got to the eleventh floor, where Mr.
|
|
Woolwine's office is situated, no one was there to receive them. So Miss
|
|
Normand, one of the queens of the screen, sat in one of the straight-backed,
|
|
uncomfortable chairs in the hallway, waiting twenty minutes for her
|
|
interrogators to appear.
|
|
During that wait she made a statement for the press...
|
|
During the waiting in the hall Miss Normand, who was attired in a gray
|
|
velour hat, fur neck piece, red coat, gray hose and black Oxfords, joked with
|
|
the officers.
|
|
She was declared to have left a sick-bed to accommodate the officials
|
|
making the murder inquiry. Late in the day it was reported she had a severe
|
|
collapse, but Mr. MacArthur stated she merely was ill and had not actually
|
|
collapsed.
|
|
Mr. Woolwine, accompanied by Mr. Doran and Ben Smith, official shorthand
|
|
reporter, came to the office twenty minutes after Miss Normand. Mr. Woolwine
|
|
walked toward her party.
|
|
"Good evening, Miss Normand," he said. "How are you feeling tonight?"
|
|
"I haven't been feeling very well today," she replied.
|
|
They all went into Mr. Woolwine's office, but Miss Normand's two
|
|
companions remained in the anteroom during the taking of her statement.
|
|
About half an hour later, Detective Sergeants Cato and Cahill left the
|
|
building on an unexplained mission, remaining away for several hours. Mr.
|
|
Woolwine later said this trip was not the outgrowth of new information from
|
|
Miss Normand and that nothing definite was developed.
|
|
Mr. Davis, the chauffeur, remained downstairs during the questioning of
|
|
his employer.
|
|
Just an hour after the conference started, Mr. Doran made the trips
|
|
referred to above with the Normand letters. When he returned them to his
|
|
office, Mr. Woolwine followed him out of the room where Miss Normand was
|
|
being questioned, and held a brief consultation with him.
|
|
Earlier in the day, six witnesses were examined by the officers on the
|
|
case. One of them is a nurse who declared she saw a man wearing a cap and a
|
|
muffler who was watching Miss Normand and Mr. Taylor as the couple were
|
|
standing near Miss Normand's machine.
|
|
The strange man, whose description is said to coincide with that of the
|
|
man seen leaving Mr. Taylor's apartments after the shot was heard, was
|
|
standing in the shadow of some brush, the woman said.
|
|
Other witnesses whose statements were taken during the day were not
|
|
named by the investigators, nor was the nature of their testimony learned.
|
|
In addition to the Normand letters received at the District Attorney's
|
|
office a few days ago, Mr. Woolwine yesterday obtained possession of other
|
|
letters taken from the home of persons not officially permitted to remove
|
|
them. Among these were letters from Mary Miles Minter and many canceled
|
|
checks and other personal property.
|
|
Mr. Woolwine, late in the day, said he had personally examined all this
|
|
material and had been unable to find anything which in itself aided in
|
|
solving the mystery of who shot Mr. Taylor and why.
|
|
Detective Sergeant King, working out of the District Attorney's office,
|
|
was reported at his home to be seriously ill and not able to continue his
|
|
work investigating the case. Charles A. Jones, retired Chief of Police and
|
|
formerly an investigator aiding Mr. Woolwine, was in conference a long time
|
|
during the afternoon with Mr. Woolwine and the others who are trying to find
|
|
the slayer.
|
|
And the conclusion of a "bonehead conference," as he termed a meeting in
|
|
the afternoon with police detectives, Dist.-Atty. Woolwine said that no clews
|
|
had been found which would directly lead to a solution of the mystery.
|
|
In addition to making a personal tour of the scene of the crime during
|
|
the morning hours and to sitting in at several conferences, Dist.-Atty.
|
|
Woolwine added several new elements to the murder mystery. He introduced
|
|
late in the day a new and hitherto unmentioned witness into the case, whose
|
|
identity was guarded with the utmost secrecy.
|
|
The mystery witness, a man who thus far has failed to appear in any
|
|
phase of the baffling investigation, was spirited into the District
|
|
Attorney's office late in the afternoon.
|
|
Earlier in the day Chief Deputy Dist.-Atty. Doran had hastily left the
|
|
Hall of Records on a secret mission, accompanied by a shorthand reporter and
|
|
Detective Sergeants Winn and Murphy. It was thought they were to visit Mabel
|
|
Normand's apartment to get a shorthand statement from her.
|
|
Several hours later Chief Deputy Dist.-Atty. Doran returned, bringing
|
|
with him the unknown witness. The man was escorted into a room, the door was
|
|
locked and he was questioned for an hour. The officials who heard his
|
|
statement refused to reveal his identity or to relate what had occurred
|
|
behind the locked door.
|
|
An official conference was held late in the afternoon. Those present
|
|
included Dist.-Atty. Woolwine, Chief Dep. Dist.-Atty. Doran and the
|
|
detectives. Mr. Woolwine gave the session the name of "bonehead conference,"
|
|
he explained, because he had concluded that none of the investigators,
|
|
including himself, had been able to reach any solution of the crime. He said
|
|
that no person was under suspicion, despite the fact that several prominent
|
|
film persons had been interviewed, that not even a motive has been
|
|
established, that he has not been able to form a definite theory that might
|
|
aid them in the investigation.
|
|
Mr. Woolwine verified the report in The Times yesterday morning that
|
|
Mary Miles Minter had made a statement for the District Attorney's office.
|
|
The questioning, he stated, was conducted last Tuesday afternoon by Mr.
|
|
Doran, who refused to divulge the nature of the written statement which a
|
|
shorthand reporter took from Miss Minter.
|
|
While Mr. Woolwine was considering what steps he should next take in his
|
|
personal investigation, Capt. of Detectives Adams and Detective Sergeant
|
|
Herman Cline made a hurried trip to San Diego to investigate the suicide of a
|
|
man who at first was reported to answer the description of Edward F. Sands,
|
|
former valet employed by Taylor and who is sought in connection with the
|
|
crime.
|
|
The suicide had registered under the name of James Martin at a San Diego
|
|
hotel. Last Monday his body was found in his room. Also it was learned that
|
|
he had a bank account of $260 in a Los Angeles bank. His description,
|
|
Coroner Kelly reported, tallied with that of Sands.
|
|
After viewing the body, Capt. Adams announced he was positive the man in
|
|
the San Diego morgue was not Sands. He returned to Los Angeles last night...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
An official investigation is under way by the Motion-Picture Directors'
|
|
Association, President David M. Hartford announced last evening, of a
|
|
proposition reported to have been made to a prominent motion-picture actor
|
|
here that he should drop out of sight under circumstances calculated to make
|
|
it appear that he is the murderer of William Desmond Taylor.
|
|
The extraordinary situation first became public at a largely attended
|
|
meeting of the Motion-Picture Directors' Association at the Hollywood Women's
|
|
clubhouse Thursday evening. A well-known director stated from the floor,
|
|
according to others present, that the film actor, with whom he is associated,
|
|
had been approached by two representatives of a local newspaper and the
|
|
proposition made to him that he should, in effect, assume the guilt for
|
|
Taylor's murder for the time being.
|
|
The plan behind the proposal, according to the understanding, was that
|
|
the star would get very usable "publicity" and the newspaper "sensational
|
|
copy." It all was to be arranged by the return of the actor after a proper
|
|
period of time, and his exoneration by proper alibis. In the meantime the
|
|
authorities could be seeking the real murderer of the director if they saw
|
|
fit in face of the apparent guilt of the missing star.
|
|
The actor refused the proposal with indignation, and nothing more came
|
|
of the matter until it was brought out at the meeting Thursday night.
|
|
Mr. Hartford, who is the newly elected head of the Directors'
|
|
Association, said the matter had not been brought up officially, but he
|
|
considered it of sufficient importance to began an inquiry yesterday.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
Mabel Normand, famous film star, before going into the office of Thomas
|
|
Lee Woolwine, District Attorney, last night, to be questioned as to any clew
|
|
she might be able to furnish to the identity of the slayer of William Desmond
|
|
Taylor, motion-picture director, issued a statement through her manager that
|
|
she could "not offer any solution whatever" concerning the tragedy and denied
|
|
that she was in love with Taylor, or had quarreled with him.
|
|
"No one will ever know how I regret the terrible tragedy. I have told
|
|
truthfully everything I know and am very sorry, indeed. I cannot offer any
|
|
solution whatever as to the motive which prompted the terrible deed. I have
|
|
satisfied the Los Angeles authorities, both police and District Attorney's
|
|
office, that I know nothing about the murder, and have offered my services or
|
|
a statement at any time I may be called to help apprehend the assassin.
|
|
"The handkerchief and gown found in Mr. Taylor's apartment have been
|
|
identified as other than mine. It has been established that I was not in
|
|
love with Mr. Taylor; that he escorted me to my car that evening and chatted
|
|
until I drove away, when we waved good-by to each other.
|
|
"Please tell the public that I knew absolutely nothing about this
|
|
terrible happening and that Mr. Taylor and I did not quarrel."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
A man working in Hollywood who requested his name not be mentioned in
|
|
connection with the matter, stated to an Examiner reporter yesterday that on
|
|
Tuesday afternoon, January 31, about 3 o'clock he was walking down Hollywood
|
|
boulevard between Gower and Vine streets and that a man who tallies with the
|
|
description of the one seen by Mrs. MacLean at the Taylor house on the night
|
|
of the murder stopped him and inquired the way to the Lasky studio.
|
|
"The man seemed to want to talk to some one," said the person giving
|
|
this piece of news, "and while we were engaged in conversation he asked me if
|
|
I knew William D. Taylor. He said Taylor was a director at Lasky's. I told
|
|
him I had never heard of the man and he expressed surprise and said he was
|
|
very well known. The man said he wrote scenarios and poetry and he had a
|
|
whole bunch of papers in his hand which he wanted to read to me, but poetry
|
|
not being in my line I told him I was in a hurry.
|
|
"The man was short and heavy set. He wore dark brown clothes and a soft
|
|
hat of the same color. He had on very heavy shoes, sort of brogans, and he
|
|
looked about 25 years old. As he walked away I noticed he was bow-legged.
|
|
He had a round, full face and looked to be about five feet nine inches in
|
|
height.
|
|
"The man also asked about a car to town and said he believed he would
|
|
take the next one, and then changed his mind, and acted, I thought, in a
|
|
peculiar manner. I did not think of telling this until I read of Mr.
|
|
Taylor's murder and later read the description of the man in the paper."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
Walter Vogdes
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
Mabel Normand sat in her bungalow court apartment, 3089 West Seventh
|
|
street, yesterday afternoon and for two hours went over in detail the story
|
|
of her friendship for Taylor, of her last visit to his house on the night of
|
|
the murder, and of the famous "Blessed Baby" letters which Miss Normand and
|
|
Taylor wrote to each other.
|
|
She discussed the general tone of the letters and recited a number of
|
|
them in detail from memory. She went over the conversation she had had with
|
|
Taylor a few moments before he was murdered, giving every sentence, she
|
|
declared, that had passed between them.
|
|
Miss Normand rose from a sick bed to grant the interview. For two days
|
|
she has been on the verge of collapse.
|
|
She talked to an Examiner reporter, nevertheless, against the advice of
|
|
her business manager who feared for her physical condition.
|
|
"You'll not see the Mabel Normand you know on the screen," said her
|
|
manager, MacArthur, while we were waiting for her to appear. "This terrible
|
|
case has played havoc with her nerves."
|
|
The film star appeared in negligee, her hair down her back in school
|
|
girl braids. Her face was pale and her voice trembled with emotion when she
|
|
mentioned Taylor.
|
|
"I will talk freely to you. I will tell you everything I know about
|
|
this terrible case," she said in starting. "And I ask only one thing in
|
|
return. Print truthfully what I say. So much that is untrue has been
|
|
printed about me.
|
|
"There is no secret about any phase of my relations with Mr. Taylor. My
|
|
letters to him--I would gladly set them before the world if the authorities
|
|
care to do that. I have nothing to conceal.
|
|
"I knew Mr. Taylor had letters of mine. Once several weeks before he
|
|
was murdered I saw them in a drawer of his desk. I remonstrated with him.
|
|
'Why do you save my letters, Billy?' I asked. 'There's nothing in them.' He
|
|
merely smiled in answer.
|
|
"I have been charged with trying to recover those letters; with trying
|
|
to conceal them. That is silly. If those letters are printed you will see
|
|
that they are most of them casual; they express the jesting spirit that
|
|
characterized our relations. We teased each other and made fun of each a
|
|
great deal. We did that continually on the night he was murdered, when I
|
|
dropped in for a few minutes to see him"
|
|
As for the letters, she said, he would write her:
|
|
"Dear Mabel: I know you're an awfully busy woman and haven't much
|
|
time to grant to a poor duffer like me, but--how about dinner together next
|
|
Wednesday and then the Orpheum"
|
|
Yours always,
|
|
"Billy."
|
|
And on one occasion she said she answered:
|
|
"Dear Desperate Desmond:
|
|
Sorry I cannot dine with you tomorrow. But I have a previous
|
|
engagement with a Hindoo Prince. Some other time."
|
|
"Then," she said, "I would sign the letter with a little sketch of
|
|
myself, or by drawing a 'daffodil.' You know the daffodils, those funny
|
|
little comic figures.
|
|
"Or he would write to me about books. I just want to show you some of
|
|
the books he gave me."
|
|
Miss Normand rose and picked up a costly illustrated volume descriptive
|
|
of the Russian Ballet. Then another large book describing dress throughout
|
|
the ages.
|
|
"I should like to deny a number of things that have been charged against
|
|
me," said Miss Normand.
|
|
"First that I had told some one that I expected to marry Mr. Taylor. I
|
|
never said that. Secondly, that I was with him on New Year's Eve at the
|
|
Ambassador Hotel and that we quarreled afterward.
|
|
"On New Year's Even I was at the Alexandria hotel with Mr. and Mrs.
|
|
Mahlon Hamilton. I did not see Mr. Taylor that night."
|
|
"Did you quarrel with him on any other night after returning from a
|
|
party or from dinner? And did he return any jewels to you?"
|
|
"I never quarreled with him. And he did not return any jewelry to me.
|
|
"Then there's the story of the night dress found in Mr. Taylor's
|
|
apartment. It is cruel for any one to insinuate that it belonged to me. The
|
|
initials, which I understand were found on it, refute that. The night of Mr.
|
|
Taylor's death was the only time I was ever alone with him in his house.
|
|
"It has been said that check stubs found on Mr. Taylor's desk and the
|
|
fact that he had drawn some money from the bank just before he was killed
|
|
would indicate that perhaps someone was trying to blackmail him. I don't
|
|
believe it. He had his check book out that night and was going over his
|
|
checks for one reason only.
|
|
"Ever since Sands, his former butler, had forged his name Mr. Taylor had
|
|
examined every check that came in carefully. He told me that he could hardly
|
|
tell Sands' forgeries from his own signatures, and he was afraid that the
|
|
swindling was going on all along.
|
|
"On the night of the murder, contrary to what has been said, he was in
|
|
excellent spirits. During the time that I was with him I heard no sound that
|
|
would indicate that any one was hiding in the house, anyone who might have
|
|
stepped out and killed him after I left. But I will go back to the first
|
|
part of that story of our last evening and give it to you all in detail.
|
|
"In the afternoon I went to a jewelry store to have initials placed on a
|
|
vanity bag of mine. Then I went to the bank to deposit some checks. I'm
|
|
rather careless about money and sometimes I let my checks accumulate--don't
|
|
deposit them each week. It was so in this case.
|
|
"At the bank I phoned home to my maid, who told me that Mr. Taylor had
|
|
called up. She said he mentioned having a book for me. I left the bank,
|
|
bought 50 cents worth of peanuts from a man on the corner, several magazines
|
|
and stepped into my limousine.
|
|
"I then directed William, my chauffeur, to drive to Mr. Taylor's home.
|
|
I arrived, went up on the porch, and the door was opened by Mr. Taylor's
|
|
valet, Henry Peavey. I saw Mr. Taylor inside talking on the phone, and when
|
|
Henry asked me to step in, I refrained because I didn't want to eavesdrop on
|
|
his conversation.
|
|
"Then Henry went inside, and told Mr. Taylor I was there. At once he
|
|
said good-by, hung up the phone and came forward to greet me.
|
|
"'I know why you're here,' he said. 'You haven't come to see me at all;
|
|
you've just come after that book!'
|
|
"The book was 'Rosmundy,' [sic] by Ethel M. Dell. It was not a copy of
|
|
one of Freud's works, as has been said. I read Freud and Nietzche long
|
|
before I met Mr. Taylor.
|
|
"For some time Mr. Taylor and I 'spoofed' each other in our usual way,
|
|
while Henry worked about the back part of the house. I looked about and
|
|
said, 'This place has changed since I saw it last. I see you have both a
|
|
piano and a Victrola now. My, you're getting altogether too rich.'
|
|
"Then we discussed books. We discussed 'Three Soldiers,' a book by that
|
|
Chicago newspaper man, John Dos Passos. He had read it only recently and was
|
|
much interested. And several other new books came into the discussion.
|
|
"When Henry Peavey entered I stared at him in amusement. I stared at
|
|
his curious attire. He wore green golf stockings, yellow knickers and a dark
|
|
coat. He left by the front door, smiling broadly and saying good night to me
|
|
and Mr. Taylor. The way he said it--he's a funny colored boy with lots of
|
|
mannerisms--made me smile.
|
|
"When Henry had gone I said, 'Why don't you get him a set of golf
|
|
sticks? Then he'd be all set up.'
|
|
"Mr. Taylor's face grew serious then and he discussed Henry at some
|
|
length, telling me how Henry had been arrested a short time before and how he
|
|
had gone down to see the judge about the vagrancy charge. And how he had put
|
|
up a bond of $200 to secure Henry's release.
|
|
"Then the talk turned on dinner and Mr. Taylor tried to persuade me to
|
|
stay, saying that he had my favorite dessert--rice pudding. But I declined,
|
|
for I had to work the next morning and it is my custom to retire early
|
|
whenever I have work ahead.
|
|
"So we started for the door. As we stepped out on the porch and walked
|
|
down the pathway toward me car, he put his arm about me. At the car he saw
|
|
the magazines I had bought. One magazine was the Police Gazette and he
|
|
started to tease me about it. I told him that I had bought it with a number
|
|
of other illustrated magazines simply to look over the pictures.
|
|
"His parting remark was about calling me up an hour later concerning the
|
|
book he had given me. He was curious to know whether I would like it.
|
|
"He waved good-by and I saw him start back toward the house. The next
|
|
morning Edna Purviance called up and told me that he was dead.
|
|
"And that is all that I know. That is all I can tell District Attorney
|
|
Woolwine or any other of the authorities if they call me before them."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
...Emerging at 11:30 last night from District Attorney Woolwine's inner
|
|
office at the close of a four-hours' interrogation of Mabel Normand,
|
|
Detective Sergeants Cato, Murphy, Cahill and Winn brought with him a cap
|
|
which they said may prove to be that of the man seen near the home of William
|
|
D. Taylor by Mrs. Douglas MacLean.
|
|
This cap, regarded by the detectives as important enough to be taken by
|
|
them into the conference with Miss Normand, was worn by a man arrested in the
|
|
afternoon on East Fourth street by Detectives Roberts and Lloyd. He gave the
|
|
name of Walter Thiele and is held at the city jail on suspicion of a burglary
|
|
committed the night of the Taylor murder and for carrying a revolver.
|
|
On the visor of the cap is a bloodstain. The cap itself is khaki color,
|
|
with distinct seams that might cause it to be mistaken for plaid at night...
|
|
Miss Normand, after the questioning, talked to reporters for a few
|
|
minutes.
|
|
"I feel so relieved now that I have told my story--everything--to the
|
|
District Attorney. I know by the expression on Mr. Woolwine's face and his
|
|
kindly smile as I left that he has placed me absolutely in 'the clear.'
|
|
"I told him everything from the time I entered Mr. Taylor's apartment to
|
|
get the book he was to lend me until the moment I left him at the curb and
|
|
waved good-bye. He has heard by story and he smiled convincingly at its
|
|
conclusion."
|
|
As she walked down the corridor, garbed in an attractive dark red suit
|
|
of the latest pattern her step was light and her manner confident and
|
|
cheerful.
|
|
"I'm so tired, so very tired," the film star said to her chauffeur as
|
|
she and her companions stepped into her limousine. "Please drive us back to
|
|
the house so I can get some rest after this ordeal."
|
|
"Just tell them I know the district attorney has placed me in 'the
|
|
clear,'" she called over her shoulder to a newspaperman who pressed her for
|
|
an interview. "Tell them I have offered to be the first one to help in
|
|
tracing down this fiendish assassin and that I hope he is caught and
|
|
punished."
|
|
And as the automobile of Mabel Normand sped on the district attorney had
|
|
this to say:
|
|
"I believe that little girl has told me everything she knows about this
|
|
case and she's giving us every bit of aid she can."
|
|
This followed a day during which Miss Normand's physicians had declared
|
|
that she was not equal to the strain of an official interrogation. Then
|
|
Woolwine himself had a telephone conversation with Miss Normand shortly
|
|
before 7 o'clock. Anxious to avoid the crowd that would be attracted by a
|
|
daytime visit to the district attorney's office, the film actress decided
|
|
that she was strong enough to brave the ordeal and promised to come to the
|
|
Hall of Records at once.
|
|
"Even after talking to all the people about this Taylor case, I have
|
|
been unable to gather one bit of evidence that would produce a clew,"
|
|
declared Woolwine at midnight, after the conference.
|
|
"Miss Normand talked freely and for a long while we discussed the case
|
|
informally. She is a very bright girl and seemed perfectly willing to help
|
|
in running down the person who killed Taylor. She says she is as much
|
|
interested in solving the murder as we are.
|
|
"There was sincerity in her tone when she made her statement in the
|
|
presence of a shorthand expert.
|
|
"Of all the baffling murders we have had in recent years, this is the
|
|
most puzzling I have encountered in my career.
|
|
"That Elwell murder in New York, has many characteristics of this one.
|
|
We haven't found one clew yet that will assist in tracing the murder.
|
|
"Sands? Of course, I want to talk to him.
|
|
"All the persons questioned so far have not given a clew--none whatever!
|
|
"I suspect no one yet; have eliminated none."...
|
|
To a question as to whether he had obtained from Miss Normand
|
|
information apparently related to the murder itself which had not been
|
|
printed, Woolwine answered:
|
|
"We have talked of many apparently irrelevant things not published in
|
|
the newspapers, but up to this time I have gotten nothing not published that
|
|
pertains directly to the murder."...
|
|
McArthur, the manager, told reporters that Miss Normand had been
|
|
receiving about a hundred letters a day since the death of Taylor.
|
|
Most of them were from friends and admirers, expressing their deepest
|
|
sympathy, but a few each day were abusive or from cranks."...
|
|
"Yes, the man wore a plaid cap and a muffler."
|
|
A woman other than Mrs. Douglas MacLean saw the mystery man in the
|
|
William D. Taylor case, it developed yesterday--saw him just before the
|
|
murder while watching the film director and Mabel Normand.
|
|
This woman, a nurse, was walking south on Alvarado street about 7:30
|
|
o'clock on the evening of February 1.
|
|
She recognized Mabel Normand from her pictures. She did not know
|
|
Taylor, but has since satisfied herself that he was the man in this sidewalk
|
|
conversation.
|
|
She passed them. A few feet farther on she saw a man standing behind a
|
|
clump of brush.
|
|
The man was not more than thirty feet from the couple, and appeared to
|
|
be watching them intently.
|
|
"How was he dressed?" asked the police detective of this newest and,
|
|
until yesterday, revealed witness.
|
|
"I remember distinctly the plaid cap and the muffler," she said.
|
|
"Would you be able to recognize him should you see him again?"
|
|
"I would."
|
|
This testimony regarded as more intimate than any yet issuing from the
|
|
sterile ground of facts in the case, has not been vouchsafed by this woman
|
|
heretofore because, as she excused herself, she "did not know it was
|
|
important."
|
|
Nevertheless it is considered vital in this, that it practically
|
|
dismisses from consideration the idea that the murderer--if this man of the
|
|
muffler were he--entered the apartment while Taylor and Miss Normand were in
|
|
conversation.
|
|
Hence, upon the basis of this new story the structural material of the
|
|
crime must be rearranged and the murderer, in the revised version, is
|
|
discovered entering after Miss Normand left...
|
|
The District Attorney called no witnesses yesterday. In the morning he
|
|
drove out to the apartment occupied by Taylor at 404-B South Alvarado street,
|
|
accompanied by E. C. Jessurun, the owner; W. C. Doran, Chief Deputy District
|
|
Attorney, and Walter Fischer, his chauffeur.
|
|
Mr. Jessurun was the first person to enter the house after the discovery
|
|
of the body by Henry Peavey, Taylor's colored valet.
|
|
In order to have a picture of that setting, with the fidelity of detail
|
|
maintained, the District Attorney secured from Mr. Jessurun a description of
|
|
the scene as he had observed it.
|
|
Jessurun placed Fischer on his back on the floor, with feet towards the
|
|
front door, with the corner of the rug there turned back under one foot. The
|
|
landlord straightened the chauffeur's arms by his sides, but he spread his
|
|
legs slightly apart, as they had found Taylor lying. The chair in which
|
|
Taylor sat as he talked to Miss Normand, Jessurun placed over one leg, with
|
|
its two front legs between Fischer's and its back towards the wall.
|
|
"That is the way the body lay, just like that," said the landlord...
|
|
In a second statement the District Attorney observed that "the
|
|
investigation has been proceeding as well as might be expected, considering
|
|
the fact that more than a week has elapsed since the commission of the
|
|
crime."
|
|
"Does the evidence point to Sands or does it eliminate him?" he was
|
|
asked.
|
|
"It does not point to any one," he replied. "I have not gone far enough
|
|
to intelligently conclude that this person or that person might have done
|
|
it."
|
|
The District Attorney's attention was directed to a powerful motion
|
|
picture producer and magnate who, it is well known, was in love with one of
|
|
the actresses frequently mentioned in the investigation.
|
|
It developed that many persons, even men in the police department, have
|
|
been wondering why this man has never been questioned.
|
|
It appears that for several days he has refused himself to nearly all
|
|
visitors and has placed officers in his home to guard himself against
|
|
intruders.
|
|
This man is being considered as one who, on account of his very close
|
|
relationship with the actress in question, might be able to give valuable
|
|
information.
|
|
A renewed search of safety deposit boxes of banks of the city was
|
|
undertaken yesterday on the supposition that Taylor left a will, an
|
|
intimation to this effect coming from his daughter, Ethel Daisy Tanner.
|
|
If there is such a secret box it is also expected that it will yield up
|
|
documents, letters or other matter which may help to clear up Taylor's past
|
|
and possibly furnish facts tending to make clear the motive.
|
|
Among Taylor's keys are a number which fit no locks in his house. One
|
|
of them, according to the officers, is similar to those issued for safety
|
|
deposit boxes...
|
|
The theory that Taylor was murdered by a blackmailer was somewhat
|
|
discounted yesterday when it was learned that he had been bartering with a
|
|
salesman for diamonds upon which a price of $3000 had been set.
|
|
The director, it is said, decided not to buy the jewels.
|
|
It was this negotiation, it is assumed, which accounted for the
|
|
withdrawal of $2500 by Taylor on January 31 and the redepositing of this sum
|
|
on February 1.
|
|
In other words, he withdrew the money to be paid to the salesman and put
|
|
it back when the deal fell through...
|
|
Among those scheduled for early interrogation are two chauffeurs--Miss
|
|
Normand's and Taylor's.
|
|
The latter, Ed Fowler, knew Sands and his statement is desired for any
|
|
light it may throw upon the missing ex-secretary of the murdered man...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
Oscar Fernbach
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
...Dramatic in the extreme was the scene enacted today at the Taylor
|
|
bungalow.
|
|
Fischer, Woolwine's chauffeur, lay prone upon the floor, impersonating
|
|
in death the murdered film director as he lay when found by Peavey, his Negro
|
|
valet. Jessurun had been one of the first to arrive upon the scene when the
|
|
murder was discovered on the morning of February 2. He saw to it today that
|
|
the position of the chauffeur's body corresponded in every detail to that
|
|
which had been Taylor's, and that all of the furniture was placed exactly as
|
|
it had been found.
|
|
Woolwine, after making the closest inspection of the premises, gave
|
|
official utterance, for the first time, to the theory that the murderer, man
|
|
or woman, was concealed in the bungalow at the time that Mabel Normand and
|
|
Taylor were engaged in conversation. He or she may have been upstairs in the
|
|
bedroom, have overheard the talk, and, upon Taylor's return from the curb,
|
|
whither he had escorted Mabel Normand to her waiting car, have shot him down.
|
|
This theory, untenable if the public statements made by Peavey are
|
|
correct, to the effect that he was there and knew that no one else could have
|
|
entered without his knowledge, gave rise at once to the belief that
|
|
information of a different nature had been wrung from the Negro when he was
|
|
quizzed yesterday by Woolwine. The District Attorney, when pressed upon this
|
|
point, declined to make public the substance of Peavey's statement taken
|
|
before him and the detectives, but reiterated his previous assertion that it
|
|
contained "nothing new."...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
CHICAGO HERALD-EXAMINER
|
|
Los Angeles, Feb. 10--...Miss Normand was the last person found by
|
|
investigators to have been with the slain director. The time of the murder
|
|
has been fixed within a few minutes of the time Miss Normand and her
|
|
chauffeur fixed as that of her departure from the Taylor house, where he was
|
|
slain. She was with him the night before the murder, and Mr. Taylor was
|
|
deeply in love with her.
|
|
They had had a quarrel, according to Henry Peavey, Negro houseman for
|
|
the murdered director, who left Miss Normand and Taylor alone at the Taylor
|
|
house within an hour before the fatal shooting occurred...
|
|
Delving into the information that a "mystery woman" visited Taylor the
|
|
night of the murder preceding the visit of Mabel Normand, officials hope to
|
|
bring the identity of this woman to light and learn the reason for her call,
|
|
which so briefly preceded the slaying.
|
|
It was reported the district attorney was especially anxious to know if
|
|
Miss Normand was aware of this caller and what knowledge she had, if any, of
|
|
the mysterious caller's situation.
|
|
Concerted efforts are to be made to obtain more details of this early
|
|
evening visit. Officials feel the woman's call may have had a direct
|
|
connection with the murder that occurred a short time later...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
|
|
Los Angeles, Feb. 10.--...Sennett is reported ill at his home. He has
|
|
denied himself to reporters. The reason for the agitation to question
|
|
Sennett is found in his close personal as well as business relations between
|
|
Sennett and Miss Normand. It developed for the first time today that Sennett
|
|
at one time proposed marriage to the star. For many years they were known to
|
|
be greatly fond of each other, but it was not until today that marriage
|
|
between them had ever been considered. In fact, it was generally believed
|
|
until last year that the pair had split permanently.
|
|
When Miss Normand joined the Goldwyn forces after several years with
|
|
Sennett, gossip related a story which accounted for the break between them.
|
|
After leaving Goldwyn, Miss Normand rejoined Sennett's staff and he starred
|
|
her. Since going back with Sennett, their relations apparently have been of
|
|
a purely business nature.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
EDWARD DOHERTY
|
|
NEW YORK NEWS
|
|
Los Angeles, Feb. 10.--...The disappearance of a drug seller has given
|
|
the District Attorney and the police a new clew. He is a man who knew Taylor
|
|
well and though Taylor had not the reputation of a drug user, it is said this
|
|
mysterious peddler had much business with him.
|
|
Perhaps Taylor was purchasing opium or morphine or heroin or ether for
|
|
some of the women who could not procure it for themselves. Perhaps the man
|
|
who is missing could give some information as to this, perhaps he knows about
|
|
the murder.
|
|
Drug sellers, continually behind the scenes in the lives of picture
|
|
players, confidants and boon companions of their victims, can tell many
|
|
things, if they wish, that would help in the search for the murderer.
|
|
The man in question is said to have been missed about the time the dead
|
|
man's body was discovered.
|
|
Search is also being made for another safety deposit box in the belief
|
|
that it holds important papers, stocks and bonds, secrets of the "love cult"
|
|
of unnatural men, a will perhaps, perhaps letters from other women whose
|
|
names have not yet entered the case. Friends of Taylor said he had a safety
|
|
deposit box "down town somewhere."...
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
Back issues of Taylorology are available on the Web at any of the following:
|
|
http://www.angelfire.com/az/Taylorology/
|
|
http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/Taylorology/
|
|
http://www.uno.edu/~drcom/Taylorology
|
|
Full text searches of back issues can be done at http://www.etext.org/Zines/
|
|
For more information about Taylor, see
|
|
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|